Digital gift cards
Small businesses will be able to sell digital gift cards to customers this Christmas as part of a new feature from mobile payments firm Square that will let recipients redeem their gift cards using just an email address. The company is making the service available to a quarter of a million small retailers in the US that already use its service, which enables retailers to accept payments using smartphones in store. CEO Jack Dorsey says the move opens up the lucrative gift card business to smaller local shops and restaurants that could not previously afford to print traditional plastic cards. The move highlights Square’s ambitions to evolve from its plug-in mobile payments service to become more of a universal payments hub.
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